Joe Rogan got into podcasting because it was the only way he could talk down to people.
Joe Rogan got into podcasting because it was the only way he could talk down to people. Charley Gallay / Getty Images Stringer

It’s hard to look at this news, but it's unconscionable to look away. Police in Minneapolis have killed another Black man under horrific circumstances. Killer cops burst into an apartment unannounced, woke 22-year-old Amir Locke, and executed him within seconds. When the cops kicked him awake, Locke picked up a gun, for which he had a license; police claimed he pointed it at them, but that’s not what the video shows. Police also claimed Locke was a suspect, but he wasn’t. It’s not clear if Locke even knew they were police. Cops held a brief press conference, and walked out instead of answering questions. Mpls saw big protests this weekend. There will likely be more.

Vote vote vote vote. Tomorrow’s the last day to vote in one of those annoying “why are we having an election now” elections. Vote yes and yes on the two school funding measures.

Protest for college workers this morning. Seattle’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers will rally today at Seattle Central College on Capitol Hill, seeking a 40% wage increase.

No matter how many regrettable purchases you have made, at least you didn’t spend $100 million to acquire Joe Rogan. Spotify spent this weekend frantically deleting episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast. At last count, they had taken over a hundred episodes taken down due to, oh you know, reasons. Rogan, meanwhile, released a video apologizing for his racist language — and let’s be clear, it’s not racial, it’s racist. A “teachable moment,” the goddamn 54-year-old man called it, apparently never having learned not to be racist in his half a century on this planet. In other news, here’s Joe Rogan speculating about whether child molestation is what causes people to become gay.

These streets are not what they once were. And that’s great. SDOT was busy this weekend with a variety of upgrades for downtown streets, including some new painted bike lanes, crosswalks, and signals that detect buses and move them along faster. Next project in that neighborhood: Getting Climate Change Pledge Arena to turn down the brightness on its obnoxious billboard.

Your weekend was probably not as eventful as the CEO of Gumroad’s. Okay, this is one of those internecine extremely-online conflicts that is a little hard to explain, but basically: Gumroad is a website where content creators can sell stuff; one of the company’s freelance illustrators suggested on Twitter that the company was exploring NFTs; and then the company’s official Twitter account (under the control of CEO Sahil Lavingia) started getting personal, responding with screengrabs of Slack messages and adopting an unpleasant, petulant tone with anyone who criticized them for airing so much dirty laundry. The low point came when one rando Twitter user said they would never use the site, and the official account Tweeted back that they looked up his email address, and then disclosed that he had a purchase history with them. (If you, like so many others, have a horny alt that you use to purchase adult material on Gumroad, you might want to delete your account before they do something similar to you.) Meanwhile, another marketplace site known as Itch.io tweeted apropos of nothing that they will never support NFTs.

On the topic of NFTs, last week you may have heard that many artists were dismayed to find that their songs — or at least representations of their songs — were being sold without their knowledge as NFTs on the website HitPiece. After some outrage, now the RIAA has sent a letter to the company, demanding information about how much money HitPiece raked in and how they intend to distribute it to musicians. Nothing could have put as broad a smile on my face as the prospect of the RIAA and NFT bros eating each other alive.

Can you stomach one more NFT story? Sorry, this will be the last one for today, but it’s a good one. This researcher with the Internet Archive has figured out what sounds to me like a plausible explanation for why so many celebrities are flogging NFTs all of a sudden like Marie Osmond selling dolls on QVC. They all, he writes, have connections to the mega-agency CAA, which just happens to be an investor in an NFT marketplace. Ohhhhhhhkay.

New retro fad alert. Back in the late 1980s, a Southern Resident orca was photographed balancing a dead fish on her head. It soon became the hot new trend for all the other killer whales in her pod, before the fad died out in time for fall. But now Adler, an 11-year-old Northern Resident orca, has been photographed wearing a similar accessory. I’ve reached out to Ocean Wise Research for more information about this fashion development and will update you when I have more information. In the meantime, go ahead and put a dead salmon on your head and tell people you’re a trendsetter.

Route 99 has claimed another life. A hit-and-run driver killed a pedestrian on SR99 this weekend. Previously, a driver crashed and killed himself in the Highway 99 tunnel, a drunk driver killed Lynnwood residen Sonja Cooper on Highway 99, a pickup truck driver killed a 14-year-old crossing the street on Highway 99, a Lynwood man died after crashing into a truck on Highway 99 ... you get the idea. State legislators are talking about improving a section of 99 north of the bridge, but the whole thing needs an overhaul along its entire length.

Toot toot! Here come trains, Bellevue! You can’t stop them! Now the only thing that’s left is becoming a place that people actually want to go.

The US government is poisoning Hawaiians. For close to a decade, a secret Navy fuel facility has been leaking toxic chemicals into groundwater, poisoning a water supply that feeds 20% of Honolulu, particularly homes around a military base.

Apparently there’s an Olympics happening now. Remember when The Olympics used to be a big deal? What happened? I’ve seen more tweets in the last 24 hours about Chris Kattan than Beijing 2022. Anyway, please enjoy this video of an astounding gymnast named Sekai Wright. Then read this infuriating account of the racism that athletes have had to deal with at UCLA.

Going out for a hike? You may find yourself dealing with annoying blisters unless you’re very shrewd about your footwear. (I got some Hoka One Ones that I thought were very cute, but they’ve fallen apart after less than a year. Back to mud-colored but durable Keens for me, alas.) Anyway, the Washington Trails Association just reupped a very helpful guide to keeping your feet in tip-top shape.

Gaze upon this photo and feel blessed. Here’s the delightful Terry Farrell and Nana Visitor from Deep Space 9 filming … something??? … together. I’ve tried to figure out what “Women’s Trek” is but no leads. But who CARES what it is, I will watch literally every moment of anything they do.

I have remembered to end on a song. Let's see how long I keep this going. Today I would like you to feast your eyes on the opening theme for the 1968 show Here Come the Brides, which is about a bunch of women shipped out to Seattle to marry lumberjacks in the 1800s. Look at those '60s wigs! The show is notable for being worked on by part of the team that would go on to create, of all things, The Golden Girls. (Also, OMG, is that Sarek???) I would love to see a reboot of this show in which all the women are lesbians.